The Inside & Out of Authentication in IIS – Anonymous, Basic, Integrated, and much, much more!

Several, several years ago I remember having this topic in the IIS Webcast Series and what strikes me from back then is the fact that I recall having a conversation with a currently high-level (think executive) individual. The conversation was around the fact that he/she didn’t think anyone would attend this Live webcast. I remember telling him that I thought he was wrong and boy did I ever win that bet. Too bad for me, I didn’t bet him for his “position” as I would be a high-level executive at Microsoft these days. <kidding>

Nonetheless, over 700+ individuals decided to attend this highly popular topic that went on to be a IIS Roadshow topic that hopefully educated the many people out there using IIS 4, 5, 6, 7, and now 7.5 about authentication in IIS. The topic, though not exactly relevant per se for IIS 7.0 as much has changed, is still one that many will find useful if still using IIS 6.0.

Learn about Anonymous, Basic, Integrated (Kerberos/NTLM), and Digest

In this first webcast, I spent a lot of time drilling into the core authentication methods available in many of the past and current versions of IIS. If you want to know how authentication works under the hood, this is your webcast.

Digest Authentication – Everything you never knew but never wanted to know

In this final webcast, I touched on the less used authentication type called Digest. In late versions of IIS (5 & 6), we had two flavors – Digest & Adv. Digest, and as of late (IIS 7.0) we are deep into Advanced Digest. Learn more about this less used authentication type such as the Pro’s & Con’s.

Summary

Authentication, along with authorization, is one of the most famous issues that any Web administrator runs into. Use this knowledge to learn more about the capabilities of authentication and shorten your troubleshooting & design discussions with this presentation. Enjoy!